True Love Lost (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 3)) (63 page)

“Hey, let’s go outside and you shoot cans off a log while Elizabeth is running her hands all over your body,” and mine, but he kept the last part about Elizabeth distracting him to himself out of self-preservation. The idea made his heart skip in his chest.

Ethan
thought about it, and he would have missed too.

“
Well she did tell us that she was good with a shotgun. You should have challenged her with the Glock,” she grinned. “Callen, I beat Ethan on our yearly handgun qualify. Don’t feel bad,” she winked.

Ethan was grinning like an idiot. He loved the idea a woman handed his brother his ass in something. “Welcome to my world of being grotesquely inadequate in something against the fairer sex.”

“Only one thing sweetheart?” she asked, smiling sweetly.

Blackhawk
snorted. “Tell me about it.”

Whitefox laughed and watched Elizabeth head into the kitchen to ditch her plate. “Uh, I have to do something and I hope you forgive me
after the fact,” he warned his brother. When Blackhawk’s eyebrow lifted he grinned. “I’ll explain after I make out with your wife, but I swear I won’t enjoy a second of it.”

“Oh well I’ll just calmly sit here while you do that then
.” It was funny that his brother was asking permission to kiss her, since he’d just planted ten kisses all over her face and finally on her lips.

“Just don’t shoot me.”

“I’ll try, but that’s going to depend on how much you both enjoy it,” he answered, laughing.

“Hey Lyzee,” he yelled and waited for her to wander back into the room with a bottle of water.

“Yes?”

Callen
crossed to his brother’s wife, grabbed her by the waist, careful to not jostle her or the baby, dipped her low and looked into her eyes. “You saved my ass with granddad. He gave me his blessing, and I owe you this.” And then he kissed her, slow and gently. His heart ached in his chest at the tenderness of the entire action. It was filled with everything in him.

Blackhawk laughed from the couch. “
I decided that you’re dead when you’re finished because you’re obviously enjoying it.”

Whitefox
pulled his lips from her and stared down into her eyes and they were filled with love and laughter.

Elizabeth caressed his cheek and winked at the man.

“Are you finished with my wife?”

Whitefox
righted her back to her feet and hugged her, whispering in her ear. “I love you so much, and I swear I always will not matter what happens in my life. Thank you for getting granddad to give me this chance to be happy. I don’t know what my life would be without you. You’ve changed everything.”

Elizabeth rubbed her hands across his back, and noticed her husband was smiling and not offended at all. She whispered back in his ear. “I told you
Callen; I’d love you forever and take care of you. Now I’ll take care of you both.” When she pulled away from his body, she took his face in her hands. “Promise. Thank you for coming back safe.”

“Ethan, come here,” Whitefox motioned to his brother. “Granddad gave me the wedding rings, and told me what you both
sacrificed for me.”

Blackhawk went to his family and was grinning.

“
We think you deserve the rings,” said Elizabeth. “You didn’t get the name, the least we can do is share the tradition in its place. Now there’s no doubt that you’re a Blackhawk.”

Whitefox choked on the emotion the words brought to the surface. “I won’t ever forget this.”

“It was all her,” he said. “Please don’t kiss me like you just kissed her.”

Callen hugged his brother, and whispered in his ear too. “I love you both so much
!” The emotion swamped him and tears filled his eyes.

Elizabeth went to them and squeezed back between them. “Now everything is right in the world.”
But granddad’s words of warning kept playing in her mind. Elizabeth swallowed them. She’d promised Callen, and she’d keep her promise and deal with the fallout later.

Both men laughed. “Yeah, it
most definitely is.”

                                 *     *     *

Derek was going to throw up. He was dizzy and the world was spinning around him in sick vicious circles. The last thing he remembered was hitting something laying in the middle of the road, and stopping to see what it was, and that was it. The rest was completely black and hazy. He tried to lift his head and limbs and he wondered if he’d gotten hit by a car. Nothing was moving. In fact, something was over his mouth too.

Then he saw the person across the room from him, and the horror filled him. He tried to scream, as he looked into the eyes of a killer. The face looked very familiar, like he’d seen it before, even though the clothing and hair didn’t look right.

Shit
.

There was only one option. He had to fight and get his hands free. Using everything he learned in training he struggled against the bonds, and freed his one hand. He pulled the tape from his mouth, and fought to get off the table and to freedom. The killer obviously had other ideas. It was fight or die. Swinging, he was off balance and
almost missed, stumbling forward.

The killer didn’t
miss. The tire iron hit him in the side of the head, and his entire body reverberated from the blow. Lying on his back on the concrete he stared up, as the world slowly bled black. The final two wishes were there’d be no pain, and that he could go back and un-volunteer for the transport assignment, and then maybe he’d still be alive.

Darkness came
and Derek Williams ceased to exist.

True love had taken another victim.

                 
           *     *     *

She stood over his body after harvesting what she needed, and placing it in a jar. The mess was to a minimum, and she was heartbroken that she had to hit her date that hard in the head, but she couldn’t risk him leaving. Fortunately, after she took him home, she had the sense to return home with the vehicle. Opening the back, she found the black bags, and all her lovers waiting inside. It was a sign that the man she just brought home had found them and returned them. Now
she just needed to think it out and plan her next move.

Hiding the FBI vehicle wouldn’t be hard, she knew the perfect place. It was just a matter of driving it there, hiding it in the brush, and then hiking back home.

“Lover, you brought them all home to me! What an amazing gift,” she said, kissing him on the cheek. “I should put you with the rest of the men, but your friends at the FBI will be looking for you. Giving you back will be my gift to you. I have a special place to put you for now. I saw your friends there the other day.”

“In fact, I will hide everything in the FBI van for safe keeping in case they come here and try to take m
e away before I’m done. At least then they won’t have you. I’ve worked too hard reconstructing you to lose you now.”

Dawn would be coming
soon; it was time to get work done.

                        
      *      *      *

Blackhawk heard his phone ringing, and it dragged him from sleep and back awake. His wife was stirring beside him, and he hoped for whoever’s sake was on the phone it was the utmost urgency.

“Blackhawk,” he muttered, his voice clouded with sleep.

“Director, we have a problem,” came the scared voice of Christina Hart.

He sat up fully awake in bed. “What’s wrong?” Now his wife was fully awake too. They were used to calls at all time of the night. It wasn’t rare that at some point there was an issue that needed his immediate attention. 

“Derek never made it to FBI West.”

“What?” He slid out of bed and began dressing. Blackhawk hit speakerphone and placed it on the bed to begin dressing. “What do you mean he never made it back? He was carrying all the evidence.” There was dual rising fear in his body. One that the killer had taken Derek as a victim, and the other that he was taken because they sent him out with the evidence.

“I didn’t get confirmation from the lab back home, and I started calling about an hour ago. I’ve called his cell and I even called his girlfriend and woke her up. He planned on crashing there before the drive back. She didn’t hear from him, other than he texted her saying he had a surprise coming.”

“Get all techs into the lab and double up. No one goes anywhere alone, and especially any male staff members.”

“Okay,
Boss.”

“We’ll be in as soon as we’re all dressed
.” He hung up the phone. “God damn it!”

Elizabeth went over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Ethan, we’ll figure it out. I’ll go wake Callen and meet you downstairs.”

Blackhawk nodded. Deep down Ethan was furious at himself. Had he sent Christina she probably would have arrived safely. He was well aware that men were being targeted, and he still sent out a male tech alone. Now his only hope was they would find Derek Williams alive, and that the killer wasn’t aware that they knew their team member was missing.

“Please hang in there, Derek,” he whispered, as he finished dressing and dialed the sheriff to alert him to be at the office.

Elizabeth tapped on Desdemona’s door, and there was no answer. She pushed the door open and found the other half of their team asleep and curled around each other. Tiptoeing over to her brother-in-law she gently tapped his arm, and his eyes popped open and fought for recognition.

“Lyzee, you okay?” he asked, rolling to his back. Whitefox saw she was dressed.
“Is the baby okay?” His whole body went on alert in panic.

“I’m good, but all four of us have to head in to the sheriff’s station. Our tech van disappeared mid transport and our tech is missing.”

“Shit!” Callen slid out of bed and began pulling on his jeans over his boxers. “Desi too?” He looked over at her sleeping.

“Yes.”
Elizabeth looked over her shoulder to make sure her husband didn’t follow her into their room. “It was a male tech, and he went out alone. We’re probably going to have retrieval.”

“How’s he taking it?” Whitefox knew who was going to suffer the most over this and who was going to take all the blame.

Elizabeth shook her head. “I’m afraid he’s going to lose it. I’m going to need you on this, Cal,” she said softly, going into his open arms. “I'm scared that he’s going to blame himself and completely lose it.”

“It’s okay Lyzee.
I promise you that we’ll survive this.”

Callen hugged her
close and kissed her forehead. “We’ll have to just help him through it.” Ethan was the boss, and he’d see this as his failure. “I’ll wake Desdemona and we’ll be down.”

“Okay.”

“Beautiful, don’t stress yourself or the baby. I’m here for you no matter what.”

“Promise me you’ll hold him up
if I can’t. I don’t want to see this break him.”

“I’ll hold you both up.”

Elizabeth patted his cheek and looked up into his eyes. “Thank you, Cal.”

Callen turned his head and kissed the palm of her h
and as it rested over his cheek and took a few seconds to let her lean against him.

“Ethan’s called for a double up of all sta
ff. You can’t go anywhere alone and neither can he. Promise me, you stick with one of us at all times.”

“I promise, Elizabeth.”
He released her body from his and watched her walk away. At the door she looked over her shoulder and his heart skipped a beat. Never had he ever seen her look that afraid. Elizabeth didn’t show weakness often, and this had to have her freaked out.

When she was gone, he went to lean over Desdemona, but she was already awake. “Another one?”

“Yeah, Desi, we have to head into the station.”

Desdemona heard the entire conversation between Callen and Elizabeth.
They were both so open with emotion when they came together, and she hoped one day she and Callen would be more like that too. Maybe it took time, but then she knew they hadn’t been together as family for that long. She tried to not fault her friend for leaning on her family, but part of her was still unaccustomed to the easy love between them.

As she rolled out of bed she put away her emotions and started dressing, her biggest hope for the day was she wouldn’t be autopsying one of their own.

All four drove into town together, and no one spoke a word the entire trip. It was blatantly obvious that Ethan Blackh
awk was tense and wound tight. Elizabeth wanted to take his hand, and hold it but she was pretty sure he’d push her away. When he fell into the guilt, it took him some time to work his way through it emotionally.

“We’ll find him, Ethan,” spoke his brother, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence swallowing all of them.

“I’m sure we will,” he answered tersely. Inside him he already knew the truth about how they would find him. As he pulled into the parking lot he looked back at his brother. “You go nowhere alone, Callen. I don’t want to have to look for you.”

“Then I suppose it’s safe to say you’ll be following your own directive, Ethan?”

Blackhawk’s cheek twitched at his brother’s challenge. “It’s a direct order, Callen. Follow it and don’t give me grief.”

Elizabeth touched his arm, and looked at him with calm eyes, offering her husband a little peace. As of now, he was teetering on the edge, and she didn’t like seeing him this worked up about a decision he made.
“Ethan.”

“Come on
!” He jumped out into the bitter cold, and moved towards the tech team he knew would be waiting for him in the makeshift morgue. He had to face the people that trusted him and tell them it’d be okay.

Only he knew it wouldn’t be.

Sheriff Duffy met him in the lobby. “I’m sorry about your tech, Agent Blackhawk. I have my deputies out looking for the van and your guy. I called in my staff, they’re downstairs making coffee for your team, and trying to offer any assistance they can.”

“Thank you, Sheriff. I’ll be going out too in a little while,” he added
, and he could feel his wife tense behind him.

“I’ll be joining him,” added Callen Whitefox.
Not only was he not going to let his brother do anything stupid, he wasn’t going to let him upset his pregnant wife while he was trapped in the haze of guilt. Elizabeth was pale and drawn and she didn’t need the stress over this. Instinctively, he wanted to hold and protect her.

“I’m going to go down and talk to my team,” he said, nodding at the sheriff
and ignoring his brother. He walked away and saying nothing more. The energy around him said it all.

Everyone else followed him, and just let him be the boss. Elizabeth could have fought him on it, but honestly, there was no point. When they rounded the corner, before the makeshift morgue, they ran into Sheila Court.

“Guess it isn't funny when it’s one of your own that the killer hacks apart,” she said, mockingly.

“Go, Ethan. I have this one,” said his wife. If there was one thing she didn’t like it was an asshole that wanted to twist the knife on an innocent man. Elizabeth waited until both men headed into the lab and she turned on the woman. “You think you’re funny?” she asked, venomously.

“I find it funny that the FBI scrambles when it’s one of their own. When it was our deputy, no one seemed to care.”

Elizabeth felt the anger unfurling deep in her gut, and she fought hard to not punch the woman in the face. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t scare the shit out of her. Stepping towards her, she shrugged out of her coat and tossed it over the railing of the stairs. “If I even see you looking maliciously at my husband ever again, let alone speaking to him, I swear on everything that is holy in this world I will hunt you down and
show you how we Blackhawks protect our own.”